Can I Borrow Your Night Fury?
by YtseJam2012
Summary: Astrid has to run an errand for Gobber, but Stormfly, her pet Nadderhead, is sick. Astrid goes to Hiccup to Barrow his Night Fury (Revisited and after 2 long years. Complete)
1. Chapter 1

Can I Borrow Your Night Fury

A Short Fan Fiction by Scothanial Karrasch

(I had this idea before Riders of Berk so some things might not be accurate.)

Chapter One: The Errand

Astrid walked around Berk. It was a nice day; it was partly cloudy but the sun still shined brightly. There was a slight breeze in the air, just cool enough to raise your hairs but not cool enough to make her shiver. To Astrid, this was perfect. The normal snow or sleet got tiresome after a while, so she wanted to take as much advantage of this day as she could.

The place was oddly empty. Usually it would be full of life and friendly greetings. But today, no-one seemed to be around. She knew where they all were. They were all up on Raven's Point where Hiccup housed his weekly Dragon Lesson. From little kids to their parents and even single adults came by to get a little lesson in taming Dragons; since Hiccup was the first one to do it, and he knew more than anyone about dragons, he got picked to be the teacher. Today's lesson was all about Nadderheads. Nadders were Astrid's specialty, so she didn't need to accompany this lesson.

Just when her mind was going through all of the things she could do on Berk, she heard a clanking coming from the metal shop. She thought, 'Is that Hiccup? Why isn't he teaching?' She investigated; as she looked inside, she found the large, one armed, one legged man named Gobber. His prosthetic was in the form of a hammer. It beat down on a glowing hot sword blade; sparks flew on contact.

"Oy, Astrid," he said with a toothy smile. "I'm glad you stopped by."

She looked around to see if he could have been talking to someone else; but sure enough, she was the only Astrid on this island. 'He's glad to see me?' It was rather odd. "You wanted to see me."

"Oh yes. I need an errand to be run, and Hiccup is busy teaching about dragons so I was thinking you could."

Astrid had nothing else to do today. Why not? "Sure, what do you need?"

He smiled again. "You see, there is this special metal that I use to repair damaged swords like this." He indicated the chipped worn sword on the anvil. "Normally, I'd have a crew of men sail off to Fosphero to get it, but, well, everyone is at that dragon lesson."

Fosphero was an island not too far away from here. The metal he wanted was rare on Berk, but on Fosphero, it was as common as summer grass. "I figured; you have a dragon that can fly. Would you be able to fly to Fosphero for me and get some metal?"

Flying. Astrid couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it, but flying would be perfect on a day like this. "Sure. I'd be glad to."

"Thank you so much Astrid." Gobber turned around, tossed some stuff around, and returned with a bag in his hand. "Take this. We use it too collect the stuff. It's laced with a special material that won't burn but is also very flexible."

"Thank you," Astrid said as she took the bad. With that, she left to find her dragon, Stormfly.

Since the dragon arena wasn't being used to fight dragons anymore, they turned it into a home for them. It was roomy and could hold a decent amount of tired dragons. The door was left open so they could leave and return whenever they wanted, but if a dragon needed to be found, this was most like the place.

She scanned through the dragons of many types, shapes, sizes, and colors. They all had a distinct quality to them that made one dragon stand out from another. As dragons moved out of the way for her, she finally found the familiar spiked sky-blue tail of her Nadderhead.

"Stormfly, there you are girl!" She ran up and hugged her dragon around the neck. It purred softly then groaned a little. Something didn't sound right to Astrid. She examined Stormfly's eyes, nose, moth, and horns. Finally she spotted it.

"Oh, no. You have the dragon flu." Dragon flu was the equivalent to a Viking cold. It wasn't too serious to worry about, but still wasn't too pleasant. Testing Stormfly's strength, Astrid pushed on her to get her to stand up; but she refused to and replaced her head on her crossed arms.

"Aw sweetie," Astrid said consolingly, "I'm supposed to run an errand for Gobber, but I can't fly you when you're this sick." Stormfly went back to resting. She looked around for another solution. None of these dragons were tamed for riding yet, and the ones that were tamed Astrid was not comfortable riding on at all. She had a bad experience with Hookfang, Snotlout's Monstrous Nightmare; she needed two people to ride a Zippleback; and Meatlug, Fishleg's Gronkle, would be too slow for a round trip to Fosphero. The only option left was Hiccup's Night Fury, Toothless.

"I guess that will have to do," she said; and she left to Raven's Point to find Hiccup. After a while of jogging and hiking, Astrid spotted Hiccup in front of the large group of students. He had his hands under the Nadder's neck.

"... And if you scratch under their chin like this," he moved his fingers across the scales and the Nadder fell right to sleep. The class oo-ed and ah-ed. "After that, the Nadder will sleep for an hour so be careful you don't..." he spotted Astrid, and smiled, "don't do that while you're flying."

Astrid found this to be the best timing to intervene. "I learned that the hard way," she said out-loud. This earned her a chuckle from most of the class. "Hiccup, can I ask you something."

"Sure, anything." Ever since they started dating, Hiccup had no problems doing favors for Astrid. To be honest, he actually enjoyed doing favors.

"Could I borrow Toothless for the afternoon?"

This seemed like an odd request. At Astrid's explanation of her situation, he agreed and called for Toothless with a whistle. A few seconds later, Toothless was right by Hiccup's side, pushing his head under Hiccups arm. He obeyed and pet him.

"If you want to you could ride him. Do you know how to work the gears?"

Astrid paused. "Umm... Not really."

"It's fairly easy actually," he said, moving over to the foot petal. He took off the attachment for his prosthetic foot and added the old one for his boot. "You see you start off at 1, that's all the way down. 1 is used to take off. After that, go to 2. 2, gets you up to speed. Once you're cruising, 3 and 4 are the main ones you'll use. 3 is for flying straight and 4 is for climbing. 5 is used for going down and you want to get a lot of speed. I've never got to 6 but 6 is for dive bombs."

Astrid tried to keep all of this new information in her mind as he was spouting it out. To Hiccup, this was second nature, but Astrid would have to take some time to get used to the instructions. She put her right foot on the petal and swung her body over so that she straddled the saddle.

Toothless looked through thin pupils, turning his head to the side to see who has hopped up on him. It couldn't be Hiccup, Hiccup was right beside him. He tried to reassure Toothless. "Buddy, don't worry. Astrid just needs to run an errand."

'But she doesn't even know how to work the gears,' Toothless thought.

"I know. But she's going to try her best. She needs you."

Astrid just sat there awkwardly as the boy talked to his dragon. She understood that they have a special thought connection; it allowed Hiccup to hear everything Toothless thought and he can understand whatever Hiccup said.

Toothless relinquished with a low growl. Hiccup went back to Astrid; she slid her left foot into the gear selector. "Remember," Hiccup said, "1 to start, 2 to get up to speed, 3 to coast, 4 to climb, 5 to fall, and 6 to dive."

Astrid nodded. "R-right." She still wasn't too sure about this, but she had to do her best.

"I have to get back to class. Be careful, both of you." Toothless flapped his ears.

Astrid turned the gear to the lowest position. "Alright, Toothless. Are you ready?" She patted the scaly forehead of the dragon. She's sure that he thought something but she couldn't hear it.

'Just don't screw up the gears,' he thought. He didn't like this idea one bit; but he also didn't like to question his master; his best friend. A quick look back to make sure his gear was in 1, he flapped his wings and took off.

The rush was exhilarating. Flying on Toothless was much different than flying on her Stormfly. There was more power and the potential to go faster. Astrid could never beat Hiccup in a fair race; but Hiccup took it easy on her. She wished he wouldn't.

Suddenly, Toothless's flapping became more sporadic; it was getting harder to push. 'Two! Two!' Toothless was screaming in his head. But all Astrid could hear was a growl of panic. They were falling.

"What? What's going on?! Oh, 2!" She looked down at her food and shifted it into 2. With a giant heave, Toothless was back in balance. This worked for a little bit, but he had to flap twice as face to keep up the pace. She shifted into 3, and Toothless was able to relax and fly normally now.

'Now you got it,' Toothless thought. It was smooth sailing from here, except for the occasional gust of wind. Astrid was able to take her mind off of the gears and focus on her surroundings. The silver clouds shimmered with the sun behind them in the bright blue sky. Below, the water waves and crested with the wind; each crest produced a flicker of light. With all of the waves cresting sporadically throughout the ocean, it reminded her of the billions of twinkling stars at night

Behind her she could just make out the distinct peak of Raven's Point. She knew Hiccup was up there right now, and wondered if he could see them flying off. To the left and right was nothing but water and horizon. Up ahead, the form of Fosphero became clearer. It grew the closer they got. Pretty soon, the red glow of lava could be seen. Fosphero is a volcanic island; its mountain spews lava all day long. It's hottest near the top, but cools of near the bottom, so the shore is completely safe to land on.

"There it is, Toothless!" He let out a little growl of excitement. He has never been to, or ever even heard of Fosphero before. He wouldn't admit it, but he thanked Astrid for bringing him out here.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Fosphero

Astrid directed Toothless to land on a cool patch of land by the shore. Unfortunately, she forgot to shift down the gears; they ended up crashing towards the ground instead of landing. Astrid shook her head as she got back onto her feet. "Oh man, that was a rough landing. Are you okay, Toothless?"

Toothless got back onto his paws alright. His ears flapped as he shook his head about, shaking away the dizziness. 'I think so.' He looked at the gear system, and his eyes went thin. The gears have been knocked out of place and were scattered all over the ground. Toothless scurried around, tried to get all of the pieces back together.

Astrid tried to help, but Toothless growled at her. 'This is your fault,' he thought.

"I can help. You have to trust me." But Toothless wouldn't relent. She pounded her forehead in frustration. "At least I can get what I came here for." With the bag on her shoulder, she scavenged the island for the metal.

Astrid had been here on missions before so she knew what she was looking for. She bent down to pick up a rick, bounced it in her hand a little to weigh, and tossed it aside, decided that it was no good. A few more rocks got rejected before she found one she liked. "That's the ticket."

Without hesitation, she slammed the rock hard against the ground. The outer shell fell away to reveal the shiny ball of metal underneath. This is what she came here for. There were three types of rocks to be found here. The heavy dense ones held the metal, less dense ones were just chucks of rock, while lighter hollow ones housed a little ball of poisonous volcanic gas. From experience, she knew to avoid the lighter rocks.

From glancing at the sun, she could estimate that she has done this for a good 2 hours. Once the bag was completely full, she called of her excavation and returned back to the landing sight.

Toothless was working hard trying to fit the gears back into place. He'd place one in his mouth, try to push it in, only to have it fall back out again. With each failed attempt, he would stomp his feet and let out an exasperated blast of plasma into the sky. Seeing Toothless so frustrated frightened Astrid a little, but she also felt sorry for the dragon. His only hope of returning to his master; the one who made him that tail, the one who gave him flight; it was gone now.

One last failed attempt and he threw the gear away. He let out a loud growl before collapsing on the ground defeated. Poor thing. Astrid really wanted to help; not because this is her only way of getting back home, but because she hated seeing Toothless so sad. She cautiously approached the dragon, stopping to pick up the thrown gear on the way. Toothless eyed her to whole time; as her hand approached the mechanism, he growled.

"Oh, would you stop it! I'm helping you." Toothless couldn't fight anymore; he was too frustrated to do so. Astrid really didn't know what she was doing, but anything would be good at this time. She tinkered around with the gears, trying different positioned, fitting them together in different spots, but nothing seemed to work. She could see how Toothless could get frustrated with this.

She could tell that something was missing. In one scenario, everything fits perfectly except for one thing. Two gears line up perfectly on top of each other; the only thing missing is a dowel to hold them together. She searched the ground for a bit before finding the dowel, snapped right in two. "That can't be good."

Toothless hadn't looked back the entire time, but he was curious to what Astrid was mumbling about. Then he saw the snapped dowel in her hands. 'Without that we'll be trapped her forever,' he thought. This only saddened him more. Astrid thought hard for a solution. If only there was a way to mend it, to fix it like Hiccup would in his shop.

She thought back to the times where she'd visit Hiccup working in the ship. It was hot with the furnace going, loud with the banging of hammers and grinding wheels, and smelly some of the materials. She remembered him fixing her ax one time. What did he do? He heated it up, put some sort of metal in between the two broken parts, pounded them together, cooled it off, and it was all fixed. She made a mental list; heat, metal, and a hammer.

She had the metal; she's been collecting it all day, she could use another ball as a hammer. Now all she needed was heat. There was always the volcanic magma, but that's too dangerous. The only other thing that could heat up the metal the way she needs it would be Toothless's fire blast. A short concentrated jet of plasma should be able to work.

Just as she was about to return to Toothless with a possible solution, she felt the ground shake. She waited to see what would happen, but after a few rumbles, it stopped. 'It must be nothing,' she figured.

She went back to Toothless with a simple favor to ask of him. "Can you use your plasma shot to heat up this metal? That's all I need." Toothless didn't look too thrilled. "Then we can get out of you. And you can see Hiccup again." At this, his ears perked up. He would want nothing more than to see Hiccup right now, so he complied with the request.

On a table-like slab of dried magma, she set down the two halves of the dowel with a little bit of the metal in between them. She pointed to the spot where she wants him to weld. "Right there." Toothless nodded and breathed in. But when he breathed out, nothing came. He tried again, and again nothing. He looked worriedly at Astrid.

'I don't know what's wrong,' he thought. Astrid wondered the same thing. Then she remembered all of the wasted shots Toothless took in frustration.

"Oh, you've already wasted all of your fire power."

Toothless looked down in embarrassment. He knew better than to waist his fire power on useless things.

"That's okay. We can still fix this. All we need to do is get some rocks in you." Dragons had this organ inside them right next to their stomach that could turn the rocks they ate into lava. The kind of fire that came out depended on their gas spray. Nightmares have a weak next to no gas spray, so all that comes out is a stream of lava. Gronkles have a very short strong blast of spray, hence the fireballs they produced. Zipples spray is separate from the magma, so the explosion process happens outside the body. Terrors and Night Furies have a similar spray type, but because Night Furies are so much stronger, their fire comes out in blasts of plasma.

The ground shook again. This time much more violently. Astrid stared into Toothless' panicked eyes. Hers must have looked the same. They both knew what was going on. Fosphero was erupting!

"Hurry! We need to find rocks!" Astrid went back to the pile of the rejected rocks from before, scooped a good few in her hands, and held them out for Toothless. "Eat these."

Toothless wasn't sure if he could accept these or not. They could be filled with the poisonous volcanic gas. He shook his head. Just then, the blast of lava shot out from the mouth of the volcano.

"You just have to trust me!" He closed his eyes, and gulped down the rocks in her hands with a great gulp. He waited, and a burp of fire escaped. He was filled with lava again! They hurried back to the welding site. Toothless shot out a concentrated jet of plasma, forming the two metal pieces together. Astrid slammed the metal ball onto it, shaping it to the right form, and cooled it off with the shore water.

"It's done!" She glanced behind her; a wave of lava was spilling down the side of the mountain. Her hands shook as she tried to fit the dowel into position, but she must not fail. Finally, it slid into place. It was fixed. The lava was looming ever close; she could feel its heart coming off. Quickly, she hopped onto the saddle, slid her foot into the gear shifter, put it into 1, and off they were.

Beyond the rush of wind, they could hear the sizzling of lava hitting water. Shift into 2, wait a little, then into 3; cruising time. With nothing else to worry about, she collapsed, her chest rested on the saddle as her arms hung over the sides. Her heart pounded and she breathed heavily, but they were safe now.

'That was a close one,' Toothless thought.

"Yeah, it was," Astrid breathed out. She almost missed what had just happened, but an excited look from Toothless confirmed her suspicions. "I-I heard you?"

'You can hear me?'

"I can hear you!" Astrid laughed out loud. She can now share the thought connection much like Toothless and Hiccup can. This sort of connection can only come from working together to escape a desperate situation. With Hiccup and Toothless, it began after they battled the Green Death.

"Wait until Hiccup finds out about this."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Touchdown

Berk was within distance; they could just barely make out the wooden houses along the shoreline. Astrid knew that Hiccup would be up on Raven Point with his students. As she looked for the tip of the mountain, she could see little people with their hands covering the sun from their eyes. They were looking for something; they were looking for them.

"Do you want to have a little fun with them?" Astrid asked, shouting over the wind.

'What do you mean?'

"They are looking for us. Let's give them a nice surprise." Astrid told Toothless her idea.

'But I've never tried that before.'

"Just trust me. It'll be fun."

Toothless accepted. Astrid shifted into 4th gear, allowing Toothless to fly high above the clouds. They wanted to stay hidden as they flew over top of berk.

"You'll have to look carefully," Hiccup told his class. "Night Furies are notoriously stealthy. You could miss them even in an eye blink."

A little kid just blinked. "Shoot, did I miss them?"

Hiccup chuckled "No they're not here yet. But keep looking." Hiccup acted happy on the outside, making it look like this was all part of the plan. But inside, he was worried. He knew a trip to Fosphero wasn't that long of a journey. "Come on guys. Where are you?"

Above the clouds, Astrid just shifted into 6th gear. "Dive bomb?"

'Dive bomb!' Toothless repeated. They headed straight down. The wind whistled as it rushed passed them. Faster they went, clearing the cloud coverage. They were visible, but they were going so fast, Astrid couldn't make out any faces. Even faster, the wind roared passed them. The ground got bigger and bigger. It looked like they were about to crash, before...

Toothless let out a blast of plasma that stuck to the ground. Flames shot up in a circle, a clear section in the middle for them to land on; the target. Astrid waited until the last second to shift into 1 for the landing. The flames swirled around Toothless' wings as they unfolded. The landed safely, but still hidden in the flames.

The class waited in silence, wondering if they were okay. And then, Astrid jumped out over the flames, standing stoically. The crowd cheered. Toothless emerged behind her; growling and smiling for effect. The flames died down into a low simmer before dying out.

Hiccup rushed up and hugged Astrid tightly. "I'm glad you're okay. I was so worried. You guys were gone for a while." Toothless nudged Hiccup; he wanted some love too. Hiccup let go to scratch toothless under the chin, making his leg twitch and tail flick.

'Ah that's the spot,' Toothless crooned. Astrid and Hiccup both laughed, which caused a questioning look on Hiccup.

"What's funny?" he asked.

"Oh, something Toothless said." Toothless chuckled a little, trying hard to keep this a secret.

"Wait," Hiccup said, finally catching on. "You can hear him?"

'Yep.' Toothless confirmed.

Hiccup shook his head in disbelief. "Just what in Thor's name happened on that island?"

"It's a long story," Astrid said.

Hiccup gave Toothless a nudge. "I guess this means you're going to have to watch what you say around her." Toothless looked through worried eyes.

Astrid put her hands on her hips and glared. "What exactly does Toothless say about be?"

'Oh, just how wonderful you are and how great your hair looks and,' he looked over at the near setting sun, 'wow, look at the time. I really should be going to bed now.' He was just about to leave but Hiccup stopped him.

"No wait. Let's all have a celebratory mug of mead; my treat."

Toothless winced, Astrid was still glaring at him. He expected a punch, but instead, Astrid smiled and gave him a hug. "I have a good time today."

After the initial shock, Toothless leaned into the hug. 'I did too,' he though. 'We should definitely go flying again sometime.'

"Definitely."

The End.


End file.
